BAJAUR: At least two policemen deployed with polio vaccination teams were martyred in firing by unidentified assailants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district on Monday.

The attacks were carried out on the first day of a four-day anti-polio campaign across KP.

In the first incident, Bajaur police spokesperson Israr Khan told Dawn that 35-year-old Constable Sayed Aziz was returning home in the Dag Qala area when the assailants, carrying rifles, opened fire on him.

Salarzai DSP Jamal Shah told media that the martyred cop suffered multiple bullet wounds and died on the way to hospital.

Soon after the incident, a team from the Salarzai police station reached the site and began tracing the attackers, who had fled the scene, he said.

The DSP said an investigation had been launched to identify the attackers.

Meanwhile, the Bajaur police spokesperson said the second incident also occurred in Salarzai tehsil on Monday afternoon, about two hours after the attack on Constable Sayed Aziz.

He said Constable Sayed Qadar Shah, who was escorting a polio team, was also returning home after duty when unidentified attackers ambushed him with automatic rifles in the Tabai area.

He added that the 45-year-old policeman was critically wounded and shifted to the district headquarters hospital for treatment, but he succumbed to his injuries. No group had claimed responsibility for the incidents at the time this report was filed.

Published in Dawn, May 19th, 2026